This afternoon, Laura Stenzler and Ton Schat directed attention to a dark ibis they found north of Armitage Rd, west of rt 38 north of Monezuma. I was birding nearby, and headed right over. I found the bird, but unfortunately the rain started in earnest right then, and the lighting was poor. Also the bird was very actively foraging in the far north end of the east-most section of flooded farm fields and did not give good looks.
White-faced and Glossy ibis are about equally likely to occur here. The bird looked like a non-breeding-plumaged adult, with no white on the face to help with ID (broad white in White-faced, thin white stripes in Glossy). It was way too far away, and the light was way too dim for me to be able to see if there was any red in the face or not. I could not tell which species it was. Unless someone else gets better looks or better photos, I have to put it down as "Plegadis sp." or "Glossy/White-faced Ibis." Kevin Kevin J. McGowan, Ph.D. Project Manager Distance Learning in Bird Biology Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 k...@cornell.edu 607-254-2452 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
